Association of vitamin D and severity of COVID-19 in children

Abstract

Vitamin has a major role in the functions of the immune system, and the efficacy of this vitamin in reducing inflammation has been identified. Considering the effects of vitamin D, this study research was performed for investigating the relationship between vitamin D and the severity of COVID-19 in children. This cross-sectional study was performed on 101 children infected with the new coronavirus from September 2020 to October 2021. Information on vitamin D levels, demographic factors, and clinical and laboratory findings were documented in information forms and prepared for statistical analyses. The average of children was 2.85 ± 0.85 years. Low oxygen saturation was observed in 35.3% of infected children. The level of involvement was higher in subjects with vitamin D levels higher than 30 and less than 10 ng/ml (p = 0.04). Clinical signs in cases with deficient and sufficient vitamin D levels were more severe in terms of tachypnea and tachycardia (p = 0.01). Children with vitamin D lower than 10 ng/ml showed more frequency (p = 0.02). Cases with moderate vitamin D had fewer gastrointestinal complications (p = 0.03). Also, oxygen levels were lower in children who had low levels of vitamin D (p = 0.02). Vitamin D levels were associated with levels of involvement, tachycardia, tachypnea, clinical signs, gastrointestinal problems, and O2 levels. Moderate vitamin D levels in children are a critical issue that should be considered.

The effects of vitamin C on respiratory, allergic and immunological diseases: an experimental and clinical-based review

“…The effect of vitamin C on COVID-19 was also reported (Hoang et al 2020 ; Liu et al 2020 ). The safety of high-dose intravenous vitamin C was also shown (Barazzoni et al 2020 ; Diyya and Thomas 2022 ; Karimian et al 2022 ; Padayatty et al 2010 ).

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Role of Vitamin D and Vitamin D Polymorphisms in COVID-19 Risk and Severity in Children: A Systematic Review

“…Several studies classified patients according to their serum 25(OH)D level of sufficiency, and variations were noted between the values defined as sufficient, insufficient, and deficient. Studies included in our systematic review determine vitamin D deficiency as levels of serum 25(OH)D less than 20 ng/mL (<50 nmol/L) [16][17][18], less than 12 ng/mL (<30 nmol/L) [9], or between 5 and 15 ng/mL [19], mild deficiency as of 21-30 ng/mL [20], and mild to moderate deficiency as of 10-24 ng/mL [21]. Two studies defined severe vitamin D deficiency as 25(OH)D levels below 10 ng/ml [21,22], and one study as less than 5 ng/mL [19].…”

“…Regarding clinical presentation, six studies provided data on the proportion of patients with mild disease and were calculated to constitute 48.8% of their included cases [11,20,[23][24][25]. Moderate and moderate-tosevere disease was addressed in seven studies and was calculated as 26.27% of the included patients [5,6,11,17,23,24].…”

Impact and role of vitamins as immunonutrition in children during COVID-19 pandemic

“…5) In a cross-sectional analytical study of children infected with COVID-19 aged 1 month to 13 years, a statistically significant increase in vitamin D deficiency was observed in COVID-19 patients and in those with high severity. 8) Maintaining a high vitamin D level may effectively manage COVID-19 infection and minimize its severity; however, further pediatric randomized controlled trials are necessary to confirm this hypothesis.…”